I’ve always found Fenway Sports Group’s position on Manchester City’s financial situation quite interesting.
Liverpool’s owners have never pretended they can simply spend whatever they want to keep up with their biggest rivals. Their whole model has been built around sustainability, and for years there has been a feeling from the FSG hierarchy that Liverpool were not competing on a completely level playing field at the top of English football.
Now, after the independent commission’s findings into Manchester City, that argument looks very different.
Liverpool journalist James Pearce summed it up after the verdict, saying:
“The FSG hierarchy had long since made it clear that they felt there wasn’t a level playing field at the top of English football.”
He added that the scale of City’s offences provides vindication for FSG, who had argued for so long that the rules weren’t being properly respected or enforced.
I can understand why he says that.
FSG have always looked at things differently
There have been plenty of occasions when Liverpool supporters have wanted the club to spend more.
I certainly have.
When City were signing player after player and Manchester United, Chelsea and others were spending huge amounts, it was frustrating watching Liverpool operate within financial limits.
But FSG’s argument has always been that Liverpool need to be sustainable.
That has sometimes annoyed supporters, particularly when Liverpool have been competing against clubs with far greater spending power.
Yet the independent commission has now found that Manchester City breached Premier League financial rules over a nine-season period between 2009/10 and 2017/18.
The Premier League says City used “sham” commercial arrangements which artificially inflated revenues and reduced costs by more than £900 million.
The commission also found that City would have been in breach of Premier League and UEFA spending limits by a “very substantial amount” had the relevant agreements been properly reported.
Those are findings from an independent commission, rather than allegations simply being made by Liverpool or another rival club.
That is a huge difference.
It makes Liverpool’s approach easier to understand
One thing I think Liverpool supporters can sometimes forget is that FSG don’t control the rules.
They have to operate within them.
If another club is found to have created arrangements that allowed it to artificially increase revenues and reduce costs, that obviously raises questions about the competitive environment Liverpool were operating in.
And Liverpool were competing at an incredibly high level during this period.
Look at Klopp’s Liverpool.
97 points and second place.
92 points and second place.
Two Premier League title races decided by a single point.
Liverpool eventually won the league with 99 points, but there were seasons when even an extraordinary Liverpool team couldn’t quite get past City.
I’m not saying today’s findings automatically change those league tables.
They don’t.
City have the right to appeal, and the question of sanctions is still to be decided.
But it is impossible not to look back at those years and wonder what might have been.
This isn’t about Liverpool wanting special treatment
That’s an important point for me.
FSG haven’t been asking for Liverpool to receive an advantage.
They have been arguing that the rules should apply properly to everybody.
That’s a completely different thing.
If the Premier League has financial regulations, clubs have to follow them.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
And the independent commission has now found that City breached those rules on a huge scale and that three of four alleged breaches relating to cooperation with the Premier League investigation were upheld. The commission concluded that City had made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the investigation.
City strongly reject the findings and have said they intend to pursue the available appeal routes, arguing that the commission’s opinion contains material errors of law, principle and fact.
So this isn’t finished.
But the findings themselves are significant.
Maybe Liverpool’s way wasn’t so crazy after all
This is probably the bit that interests me most.
Liverpool have had plenty of criticism for not spending like Manchester City.
Fans have watched other clubs throw huge amounts of money at problems and wondered why Liverpool couldn’t do the same.
But Liverpool won the Premier League under Klopp.
They won the Champions League.
They reached multiple Champions League finals.
They pushed City to 97 and 92 points.
They built a squad capable of competing without simply throwing unlimited money at the problem.
And they’ve continued to operate with an eye on sustainability.
Maybe that’s why FSG have been so determined to make their argument about the rules.
They weren’t necessarily saying Liverpool should be allowed to spend more.
They were saying everyone should have to operate under the same rules.
And after the commission’s findings, I can understand why Pearce believes FSG have been vindicated.
Now the Premier League has to finish the job
This is where I think the next stage becomes fascinating.
The commission has delivered its findings.
City can appeal.
The sanction still has to be decided.
And that means we still don’t know what the ultimate consequences will be.
I’m not going to pretend we do.
But I do think the Premier League now has a responsibility to show that its financial rules actually mean something.
If a club is found to have seriously breached those rules, the punishment needs to reflect the seriousness of the findings.
Otherwise, supporters are entitled to ask why they should take the rules seriously.
For Liverpool, there is another part to this.
FSG have spent years being criticised for their approach to spending.
Maybe some supporters will never agree with their model, and that’s fair enough.
But when the owners of Liverpool have repeatedly argued that the competition at the very top hasn’t always been played on an equal financial footing, today’s findings certainly give that argument more weight.
And as a Liverpool supporter, I can’t help looking back at those Klopp years and wondering just how much more remarkable they were than we realised at the time.
Liverpool weren’t perfect.
They didn’t win everything.
But they kept competing.
They kept pushing.
And they did it while trying to operate within the rules.
Now we wait to see what happens next with Manchester City.
Because the verdict may have arrived, but the biggest consequences of this case are still to come.
Jamie (The Kopite View)
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